The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Gardenia plant botanically known as Gardenia jasminoides and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘WAH-LM’.
The new cultivar originated in a controlled breeding program in Seneca, S.C. during the spring of 2008. The objective of the breeding program was the development of Gardenia cultivars that have increased cold hardiness and root rot resistance.
The new Gardenia cultivar is the result of open-pollination. The female (seed) parent of the new cultivar is ‘Daisy’, not patented, characterized by its white-colored inflorescences, dark green-colored foliage, and moderately vigorous, upright to mounded habit. The male (pollen) parent of the new cultivar is unknown. The new cultivar was discovered and selected as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the above stated open-pollination during the summer of 2009 in a controlled environment in Seneca, S.C.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by softwood cuttings since the summer of 2014 in Seneca, S.C. and Hickory, N.C. has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.